Smart thinking and regular practice: the mantra for cracking JEE-Advanced!

Competitive examinations take heart, blood and sweat, even more so when students have to clear these papers along with their regular school curriculum. Often, many find themselves juggling between tuition, classes and self-study. But is there a method to this madness? Apeejay School, Faridabad students, Dhruv Sharma, Kartik Khandelwal, Dhruv Mishra, and Harman Singh Suri, who recently qualified the JEE-Advanced exam, share their experiences.

For Dhruv Sharma, the journey began early when he used to accompany his engineer-grandfather to the factories around his home in Faridabad. “I vividly remember accompanying him to these places and being fascinated with the machines over there,” he says. Coming from a family of engineers, after clearing JEE Advanced, Sharma wants to join one of the IITs and pursue a course in B.Tech. Even today, whenever there is an electronic issue in his house, Sharma likes to step in and see how it’s fixed.  

“While electronics and related subjects have always made me curious, my aim is IIT-BHU. I want to pursue research after this, and for those wanting to crack JEE Advanced, my tip is: maintain strong conceptual knowledge. It is a test of understanding, and the examination can be quite unpredictable. Be patient with your preparation, otherwise all your hard work will go in vain,” says Sharma.

Sharma makes special mention of the role of his school in preparing him for the examinations. “Apeejay, Faridabad took an initiative to help and guide students for these papers. They had trained teachers for Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, who knew the exam pattern and gave us some very good tips. This proved very beneficial for me.” 

Kartik Khandelwal wanted tobecome an Electrical Engineer at first, but later decided to pursue Computer Engineering. “My father is also an engineer and he is my role model. I am aiming at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra after clearing JEE Advanced. For the exam, I gained information from as many books and made notes. Once I completed my entire syllabus, I revised the topics many times,” he says.  

While Khandelwal’s favourite subject is Mathematics, he plans to start his own venture in the future, just like his father. “I want to have my own start-up, and it would be related to an app, the idea and design of which I am yet to finalise. I once tried to make an app similar to Uber-Eats with my knowledge of Javascript and C++. In a few days, I was able to create it but it needs a few modifications.”

Dhruv Mishra was initially inclined towards pursuing Commerce but as soon as he started to read Science-related books after class 10, he also began preparing for JEE-Advanced papers. “I took a two-year coaching classroom programme, along with some external tuition. These days, Computer Science and Electronics are up and coming fields and I look forward to joining a good college, and then exploring my potential. For those wanting to crack the exam, my advice would be to just follow the teachers, and not take any pressure.”

Time management has been the focus for Harman Singh Suri, who is interested in pursuing Electronic engineering. He took some online courses for Chemistry to ace his preparation during the pandemic. According to him, “The aim is to pair Electronic Engineering with Computer Science and Communications to have a holistic learning of technical and non-technical subjects. Going forward, I want to be placed in top companies,” he says.

“A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work. We at Apeejay are proud of our students – Dhruv Sharma, Kartik Khandelwal, Dhurv Mishra, and Harman Singh Suri, who have cleared IIT JEE Advanced and created admirable success stories with grit and will-power. We wish them all the best for their future endeavours.”

-Dr. Parul Tyagi, Principal, Apeejay School, Faridabad